Urged to try sport by a coach, Ella Biersbach leaves LCMR as one of its all-time great track athletes

Posted: July 20th 2026

Ella Biersbach (right) graduated from Lower Cape May Regional High School last month as a school record holder in four track events.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com 

Ella Biersbach entered Lower Cape May Regional High School as a volleyball player.

She exited the school as one of the most accomplished girls track athletes in school history.

Biersbach, who graduated from Lower last month, is the record holder in four different events – the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the long jump in spring track and the 55-meter dash in winter track.

The records were each previously held by Lower Cape May all-timer and 2005 graduate Angela Tecco, who went on to a productive college career before eventually becoming a running coach at a handful of Division I schools.

Biersbach’s ascension to high school track greatness is extraordinary considering she never participated in the sport until her freshman year. Biersbach was urged to try the sport by Dave Pacevich, an assistant coach in both the volleyball and track programs at Lower Cape May.

“When I started my freshman year, I was just going to do volleyball,” Biersbach recalled. “But then Coach Pacevich got me into it and I liked it. We were doing workouts for volleyball and he told me he thought I was pretty fast and he told me I should try track. So that’s how I got started.”

ELLA BIERSBACH

Biersbach didn’t excel at first.

“I guess I was OK for a freshman, but I definitely wasn’t anything special,” she said.

Lower Cape May head track coach Syd Peterkin agreed with that assessment.

“She did not come out and dominate right away. She kind of came on as a real surprise,” he said. “She always wanted to excel. She didn’t seem exceptional at first. But as she went along she just kept working harder and getting stronger and getting faster, and then by her junior year she turned into this physically dominating athlete. She has that competitive attitude and she really has a drive in her. She got to the point where she was worth 20 points every meet because she’d do anything you’d ask her to and she’d do it well.

“Early on, not knowing what she was good at brought her to working on a lot of things and finding herself and helping her develop into the incredible athlete that she is.”

Biersbach also developed into a terrific volleyball player over her career. Last fall, she tied for first on the team with 17 blocks, finished second on the team in kills with 81 and third on the team in digs with 65 for a Lower team that finished 10-9 and won a first-round state playoff match.

Biersbach’s record times in track are 12.49 seconds in the 100, 25.89 seconds in the 200 and 7.59 seconds in the 55. Her fourth school record is in the long jump at a distance of 18 feet, 1 ¼ inches.

“I think I just naturally gained skill with practice and as I got better I started to enjoy it more and more,” Biersback said of her development as a track athlete. It got me out of my shell, too. I gained more confidence. It all just kind of happened naturally.”

This spring, Biersbach became the first Lower Cape May girls track athlete to qualify for the state meet in four events. She qualified individually in the 100, 200 and long jump and with Jenna Hill, Jasmine Black and Abby Verity in the 4x100 relay.

“You really couldn’t ask for a better kid,” Peterkin said. “She’s always so positive with everyone and she’s so positive about being coached. She’s very passionate about it. She surprised both Dave and me with her never-ending ability to say, ‘I got this. I’m going forward and getting the next one,’ and usually she did.

“She truly had the admiration of her teammates. The girls on the team looked up to her and they were all tight. When she met other athletes, you could tell she really enjoyed being around them, talking to people at every meet. She’s that everyday person who’s still able to have this competitiveness about her to perform at a high level.”

Biersbach is set to compete in track at Richard Stockton University, where she’ll begin classes later this summer. 

“I was just kind of doing it for the love of it, but my mom convinced me to consider doing track in college,” Biersbach said. “Then Stockton asked me if I wanted to run for them and that’s when I thought, ‘Hey, this is something I want to do.’ But I definitely wasn’t thinking it at first, because my first love was volleyball.”

Biersback said she plans to study exercise science at Stockton, with the hope of becoming a personal trainer or an athletic trainer.

Biersbach credited her coaches with aiding in her development.

“My coaches were so supportive,” she said. “Mr. Pacevich and Mr. Peterkin are very positive people. Anytime you’re having a bad moment or a bad day, they just always would know what to say to pick you back up. They know how to be uplifting with positive words.”

Along with the school records, Biersbach will take great memories of her high school years with her to Stockton.

“Overall, it was a lot of practice every day going from volleyball to indoor track and then to spring track,” she said. “But I would do it again. That’s a big thing. I liked it so much that I would do it all over again.”